Why Did My Cake Layers Separate?

[Gruzia]

I made the Tribute cake from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet...it's three devil's food cake layers (baked in three pans) and whipped chocolate ganache filling with a chocolate glaze. The cake was really good...chocolatey but not heavy. However, when i slice it and put it onto a saucer, the cake layers separate! For some reason, the whipped filling and cake layers don't stick together.

Anybody have any ideas as to why this happened and how to fix it?

[chiantiglace]

did you trim the cake?

[dejaq]

I made the Tribute cake from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet...it's three devil's food cake layers (baked in three pans) and whipped chocolate ganache filling with a chocolate glaze.  The cake was really good...chocolatey but not heavy.  However, when i slice it and put it onto a saucer, the cake layers separate!  For some reason, the whipped filling and cake layers don't stick together. 

Anybody have any ideas as to why this happened and how to fix it?

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you're referring to “tunneling” or "capping" a common flaw in bread baking also, this is a suggestion only, be aware of the mixing time, and the neutrality of mixing temps of all ingredients in the mix, especially the eggs, and butter. I doubt oven temp played a role, without seeing the formula, I can't make further comments. with out seeing the final baked product you could also be experiencing something called stratification, a separation due more to the way the eggs coagulated in a faulty mix, this has happened to us all especially with that notorious lemon pound cake that takes forever to bake, when it's kicked out of the pan, it breaks into a million pieces and is impossible to slice.

Michael

[alanamoana]

it is summertime...what temperature are you serving your cake? it could just be too warm for the filling.

[Gruzia]

I can't figure out how to do the multiple quote thing, so here are the answers to your questions:

chiantiglace - i didn't trim the cake...i was impatient to get to the eating part!

dejaq - the actual cake layers baked fine, no tunneling, it was getting them to stick together with the whipped ganache filling that was the problem.

alanamoana - i put the cake into the fridge and let it sit for three hours, i sliced it out of the fridge, and after it sat for a while, but had the same problem.

btw, i'm not sure if this is relevant, but one thing i noticed about the cake layers is that when i took them out and cooled them down, the top was very sticky...i touched it and a thin layer of the cake came off onto my finger...if this is a possible reason for the separation problem, what would cause the stickiness?

[sanrensho]

chiantiglace - i didn't trim the cake...i was impatient to get to the eating part! 

Trim the tops and bottoms of each layer. That will give a better surface for the ganache to adhere to. The "sticky tops" that you mention are like a skin that "peels" off the top of the cake--hence your separation.

Edited June 9, 2006 by sanrensho (log)

[dejaq]

sorry Gruzia,

I misunderstood what you meant about the layers seperating, the earlier poster is correct, trim your cakes,whisk off your cake trimings and make sure your icing is soft enough to "adhere" to the cake layers, otherwise, yeah, it will dollup right off.

Michael

[Gruzia]

thanks everyone for all the advice...next time i wont be so lazy, and will trim that cake!